Carrot Cake (2nd attempt) on 25 Dec 2013

Suddenly felt like eating fried carrot cake, so I bought the ingredients to make carrot cake. Yes, I'm nuts to be doing this late at night when I was just busy doing the cheesecake earlier on in the afternoon. Tired? Not really when the passion for cooking/baking gets turned on, lol!

This would be my 2nd attempt doing it. As mum now stays with me during weekdays to help look after my son, I have an advisor who can advise me on cooking and baking! :)

I felt that the mixture was a little bit watery despite I have cut down the amount of water from the original recipe, and concerned that it would turn out to be soft like my 1st attempt, I called my mum to come and take a look. She took over and poured more flour and water in. She advised me to put in more flour and water so that it can fill up the pan more. When I asked her for the proportion of flour vs water, she told me "agar agar". Oh well... older generation tends to cook or bake based on "agaration" and mind you, their agaration makes wonderful cooking and baking!

How it turned out? Of course, it looked more solid, not as soft as the one that I steamed on my 1st attempt. It's still not perfect though, can be a little bit harder. Well, I shall try again soon, before Chinese New Year. Afterall, this is one of my favourite dishes! I shall continue to make it till I find the perfect "hardness". :)

Rainbow Mango Cheesecake (2nd attempt) on 25 Dec 2013

It's Christmas Day! I invited 2 friends to my house for a no-baking session, doing the Rainbow Mango Cheesecake, and a playdate session for the children.

I thought this time round, the cheesecake would look much nicer than my 1st attempt, but who knows, the result turned out to be otherwise, sigh... I realised it was a lot more difficult to pour the mixture into the baking pan as it seems a lot more solidified than my previous attempt. It also looked more lumpy. I think it's probably that I didn't mix the cheese cream well enough, and it could be that my food combo processor is going to "die" soon.

Nonetheless, it still tastes cheesecake. :)

It was a Rainbow Mango Cheesecake as my son wanted mango flavoured yoghurt as he doesn't like strawberry. I thought he would eat more this time, but he just ate 1 small slice! Mei mei who is not even 2 years old was a lot more appreciative than the gor gor!

Updates on 29 Dec: It's still me and my girl who finished up the whole cake! I told my boy that I'm not going to make this anymore since he only takes a miserable small portion of it, at least not for near future! Maybe next time, I would do mini versions instead that I can bring out to treat colleagues or friends, that is if it turns out presentable, lol!

Steamed Egg - Making it Smooth!

Mum told me that the "secret" to make the steamed egg smooth, and that is to cover the plate of egg during the steaming process. She used a bigger plate, turned it upside down and covered it on the plate of egg.

Rainbow Strawberry Cheesecake (1st attempt) on 18 Dec 2013

Finally bought all the items needed to make this no-bake Rainbow Strawberry Cheesecake. This was my 1st attempt trying this out, using recipe from http://www.thebakingbiatch.com/2013/10/cynthias-rainbow-strawberry-cheesecake.html.

Before I planned to try making this, I only have 2 mixing bowls (the white ones bought from NTUC). To make it looks nice, I actually invested in getting more mixing bowls (the blue & black ones) and spree those from Amazon.

It wasn't easy to control pouring the cream cheese mixture in to have nice looking effect. Nonetheless, I think it looks not too bad for a 1st attempt. 

I agree with Cynthia from The Baking Biatch that mixing bowls with spout do help to control the pouring of the cream cheese mixture. This was my experience when using these mixing bowls. The white ones don't have a very good profile, whereas the blue & black ones have a deeper profile. Hence, it is easier to control when pouring the mixture from the blue & black ones as compared to the white ones.